The play is composed of a selection of letters from the French actor, poet and playwright, Antonin Artaud to his psychiatrist, Dr. Ferdière, during the period, 1943-1946, in which he was interned as insane in the Rodez mental asylum. The letters comprise the desperate dialogue between Artaud and his doctor, and, through him, with society as a whole.

In the play, we do not seek to imitate Artaud, nor do we completely separate ourselves from him. It constitutes a transposition to the scene of the poet and his situation. The construction of this play led us to establish a theatrical dialogue between Antonin Artaud and Etienne Decroux: two men belonging to the same generation, who broke away from their predecessors, and founded the work of the actor on an exact, rigorous science of the body. We wanted to confront his researches, visions, imagine the actor as an animated hieroglyph, drawing the space with his gestures and beating the airheavily byblowing.

Cartas de Rodez had its debut in 1998 in the Instituto Philipe Pinel (mental hospital), Rio de Janeiro, and received the Shell Theatre Prize for best direction, which was by Ana Teixeira, and for best actor, Stephane Brodt. The play was also awarded the Mambembe Prize for best play, besides a nomination for best direction - Ana Teixeira.

" Don’t want anyone to ignore my cries of pain, and I want them to be heard."-Antonin Artaud